CBC-Sports

Win for Froch a crock

October 19, 2009 05:16 PM | Posted by   Chris Iorfida  

At the very least, the super middleweight tournament that kicked off this weekend had tongues talking in the boxing world. But there were a couple of unfortunate aspects.

The questionable wisdom of matching Jermain Taylor with rugged Arthur Abraham in the first bout of the multi-stage tournament was born out when Taylor suffered a frightening knockout in the 12th round in the bout in Berlin.

While there's no such thing as a mild knockout, Taylor has now suffered three definitive, head-rattling knockouts in his last five bouts. Not only should he be removed from the tournament, he probably should retire for his own good.

He's an engaging guy who has three kids with the former Erica Smith (a WNBA player). He's made a lot of money relative to most fighters and no one wants to see him hurt.

While fight fans from Quebec would no doubt like to see Lucian Bute step in as a replacement (provided he beats Librado Andrade in a rematch on Nov. 28 in Quebec City, it's likely that Allan Green would get the call in such a scenario, as he's fought on Showtime several times and is promoted by Lou DiBella, who handles Taylor as well.

Intense debate over Froch-Dirrell decision

In the second bout of the tournament, Briton Carl Froch was given a gift decision over Andre Dirrell in Nottingham, England.

Debate has been intense and divided over the fight. Count me in the camp that thought this was a no-brainer decision for Dirrell, by a 7-4-1 score.

We can talk all day long about some of the more undesirable aspects of Dirrell's style and the fact he didn't counter Froch's misses enough, but it leaves out the pertinent question: What exactly did Froch do to earn the decision?

Most of the talk has centred around what Dirrell didn't do, a bizarre standard for a guy who was supposedly taking a huge leap in class and hadn't fought past six rounds in over two years.

Froch was impressive in two rounds, probably deserved the nod in two others and did nothing of note pretty much the rest of the way. He was made to look foolish by Dirrell's movement, throwing wild punches that left him off balance.

While he sometimes responded appropriately to the frustration of Dirrell's holding by trying to work his way out of clinches, he also unleashed two blatant shots to the back of the American's head in rounds where Dirrell wasn't holding at all.

Worse yet, the supposedly harder puncher was wobbled worse than Dirrell ever was, on two separate occasions. Dirrell riddled Froch over the final three rounds, settling for an even round in the 10th due to a point violation for holding.

Froch's supporters have brought up the fact that Dirrell used a lot of foot movement. Two problems: 1) It's Froch's job to cut off the ring, and 2) When Dirrell stayed in the pocket, he still generally gave better than he got.

The positive is that the format of the tournament is such that each fighter can redeem himself down the line.

Dirrell is in tough next against Abraham, while Froch is scheduled in early 2010 to fight Mikkel Kessler - who takes on Andre Ward in a tournament bout next month.

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